ST:TTV116 | "Fish Out of Water"
Updated: Mar 18
Stardate 93878.1
Returning to her area of operations, the USS Valley Forge resumes her search and rescue mission, and their first port of call is to pick up on a promising fresh lead supplied by Captain Omar and the USS Lexington.
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SUBMITTED: Stardate 93878.1 FILED BY: CAPT L Omar SECURITY: Level 2 - Confidential
LOCATION: Alpha-7192 Sector
MISSION: First Contact
OUTCOME: Unsuccessful attempt at setting up relations with new species, although an avenue of communication is opened with the understanding of their language.
KEY PERSONNEL:
U.S.S. Lexington Crew Researcher Juna Mrott
NARRATIVE: On stardate 93860.9, the U.S.S. Lexington discovered a herd of sixteen cosmozoans resembling massive aquatic lifeforms. They were travelling at impulse speeds, and we tailed them from 250,000 kilometres, hoping to study them without causing any disturbances. Our scans detected not only the sixteen creatures but countless other lifesigns as well, and it was theorized that smaller symbiotic species may live within the larger ones. As we began scanning, they suddenly came to a halt, so we ceased scans and backed away to 500,000 km. However, their behaviour did not change.
We resumed monitoring them with passive scans only and detected a large volume of radio waves originating from the creatures. Assuming them to be a form of communication, I had the communications staff attempt to decrypt the signals. They reported that the messages were in the form of clicks, not unlike the old Morse code used in ancient Earth. Once the format was understood the rest easily came into place with the assistance of the universal translator.
The messages were indeed communications between the different creatures. From its contents we determined that they were also studying us. They possessed a very unfavourable view of the Lexington, seeing us as malicious; according to my communications experts, their interest in us was solely due to detecting another, smaller source of the same atmospheric composition as the Lexington.
Using their signals and a reconstruction of their language, we hailed the cosmozoans. After several attempts they answered us, stating that they are peaceful and will take no action against us if we do not do the same to them. I tried to convince them that we mean no harm, but they would not trust us due to the 'metal monstrosity' that we travel in. Aside from having a negative reaction our technology, we managed to learn little about these beings.
Despite our efforts, the cosmozoans refused to speak further, and when asked about the other ship they encountered, simply told us to take better care of our own herd. Apparently being able to project subspace fields around themselves, the creatures all simultaneously left at low warp, and we made the decision not to pursue as it may be interpreted as a hostile action.
RECOMMENDATION: If further communication is to be attempted with these cosmozoans, caution is advised as they appear to dislike mechanical constructs, and it is yet unknown how they will react to seeing more of our starships.
With that said, their detection of a smaller pocket of our atmosphere is worth investigating. An atmosphere cannot naturally form on something smaller than the Lexington, meaning that they likely came upon another ship. However, the surrounding area was previously unexplored by Starfleet and at the same time within the extrapolated location for lost escape pods from the U.S.S. Gainsborough. While it could have been an unregistered or alien vessel utilizing a similar atmosphere or perhaps another Federation ship in a sector we have visited (it is unknown where the site of this encounter was), this was something the cosmozoans appeared interested in, and may be a topic through which proper dialogue can be established.
//SIGNED//
Captain Leila Omar
Commanding Officer, U.S.S. Lexington
//ATTACHMENT// Cosmozoan Language Translation Matrix
//ATTACHMENT// Cosmozoan Scan Data
//ATTACHMENT// Intercepted Cosmozoan Messages